Here’s a write-up by an MD who disagrees with you and thinks patients receiving Opdivo in second-line NSCLC should be (and generally will be) tested for PD-L1 status:
We’ve seen overall survival curves by PD-L1 expression with Opdivo, which clearly show that the patients with PD-L1 expression do better with Opdivo than with Taxotere, while there are no significant differences between the two for patients without PD-L1 expression. However, the PFS curve really indicates that a large proportion of patients are likely rescued by getting subsequent effective non-immunotherapy treatment, and they end up with a comparable survival after starting with Opdivo despite starting with Opdivo, not because of it. The “hazard ratio” for Opdivo vs. Taxotere among PD-L1 negative with a PD-L1 expression (cutoff of 1%) is 1.19, which wasn’t statistically significant but suggests a better result with chemotherapy.
I don’t think this author has convincingly made a case for Opdivo inferiority relative to Taxotere in PD-L1-negative patients, but there may be enough murkiness that many docs prescribing Opdivo in second-line NSCLC will opt to test for PD-L1 after all.
“The efficient-market hypothesis may be the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated in any area of human knowledge!”
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.